


Xeric

by Crunchysunrises



Series: Favors, Owed and Given [2]
Category: Bleach, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bleach
Genre: Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Community: fic_promptly, Community: hc_bingo, Community: trope_bingo, Community: wishlist_fic, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-27
Updated: 2014-08-27
Packaged: 2018-02-15 01:50:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2211207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crunchysunrises/pseuds/Crunchysunrises
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If it wasn't for the tantalizing energy coming from Las Noches, Buffy wouldn't even consider putting up with (most) of her new neighbors. It's like the disgraced shinigami and their flunkies don't even know that Hueco Mundo is <em>her</em> kingdom!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Xeric

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lovelydarling](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=lovelydarling).



>   
> **Title:** Xeric  
>  **Fandom:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bleach  
>  **Rating:** PG  
>  **Content Notes:** None  
>  **Disclaimer:** I have no rights or claims to the Bleach or Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchises, trademarks, copyrights, or characters. This is fun, not profit.  
>  **Summary:** If it wasn't for the tantalizing energy coming from Las Noches, Buffy wouldn't even consider putting up with (most) of her new neighbors. It's like the disgraced shinigami and their flunkies don't even know that Hueco Mundo is _her_ kingdom!  
>  **Additional Notes:** Written to fill [](http://lovelydarling.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://lovelydarling.dreamwidth.org/)**lovelydarling** 's prompt for Wishlist 2012, which was "crossover: btvs/bleach - Buffy and the Espadas - she knows she can kick all their asses, but do they?" This also fills the "Hug" square on my Cotton Candy Bingo card, the "Arena" square on my Hurt/Comfort Bingo card, and the "Role Reversal" square on my Trope Bingo card. Also fills the "Hit Parade" prompt at fic_promptly.  
> 

It took Urahara about a decade (give or take a few years) to figure out how to safely release Buffy from her shell. She phoned the most current Slayer, said her goodbyes to the Visords and disgraced Shinigami, and got her soul buried by Faith.

Buffy finally woke up somewhere new.

The new place, which was called Soul Society, turned out to be thoroughly miserable and very, very boring. The King’s Court was not much better. And then, while looking for Dawn, Buffy found Hueco Mundo.

After centuries of (waiting to be released from her corpse and) freezing from the inside out, the desert of endless night was a welcome relief. Hueco Mundo was always breathtakingly hot, soothingly dark, and never boring. It was the perfect place for a Slayer to recuperate from her injuries, spiritual and otherwise. Slayers were of the desert, and Hueco Mundo was Buffy’s kingdom.

Buffy knew every inch if her kingdom, from the Hollows who lived in or on or beneath the sand to the Hollows (and lone shinigami) in the scrubby western forest. (The shinigami proved to be a surprisingly kind person. And he was always happy to see her even when he perhaps shouldn’t have been.) And in a few decades the Hollows knew her or at least knew _of_ her.

And then one night, something new came to Hueco Mundo.

The trio of shinigami came at the dark of the moon, and soon the sounds of construction drifted across the dunes. Buffy watched them build their palace of endless day and smiled. Hueco Mundo was not for shinigami, not even half-mad ones like the one that resided in the western forest, nor was it kind to them. But there was a familiar scent hanging about them like the smell of a favorite perfume only half remembered so Buffy let them stay.

Oblivious to the danger, the shinigami went about their business, smug in their superiority as they built their ridiculous citadel. And the Hollows, attracted by their power, noise, and arrogance, came in droves, eager to fight, serve, or die. Buffy, who was not particularly interested in Shinigami or their in-fighting, was perfectly content to mind her own business as long as no one attempted to destroy the world.

Sometimes, however, the shinigami sent representatives out on membership drives.

The first one came at the new moon. He took the shape of a handsome dark-haired man, but when he moved Buffy heard a pair of somethings sloshing in liquid. Buffy would have killed him but she was already late to her meeting with her (mad) shinigami. The representative was still introducing himself (and bragging about his ability to continually evolve), when Buffy slipped away.

The next one that they sent to speak with her was a smug, effete bastard that Buffy had known in life as Maggie Walsh. He said that his name was Szayelaporro Grant. Buffy, who generally agreed with Kisuke Urahara’s belief that grudges should probably not extend past death, did not mention their past association.

While he posed, prattled, and assured Buffy that she has absolutely no chance at beating him thanks to the power that Aizen had bestowed upon him and should simply give herself over to his research, Buffy quietly slipped away. She did not need her gift of prophecy to know that someday science would catch up with that soul again. And Buffy had always been a fan of poetic justice.

The next recruiter reminded Buffy of a door to door proselyte more than anything else. He talked like one too. He started praising his new leader then distracted himself with his own blinding hatred of shinigami. Buffy considered killing him on general principle, but she was hungry and he was boring. He would probably be just as boring in a fight. Buffy left while his back was turned.

Buffy only put up with Aizen and his disjointed army because of the scent on the wind. It fascinated her. When she stood downwind of the former shinigami’s pleasure palace, the desert breeze brought her the scents of peanut butter and anchovy sandwiches and power twisted, distorted, and half forgotten but familiar.

It made Buffy’s heart ache.

The fourth minion to track Buffy down was fun.

“I’m Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, the Sixth Espada,” he announced proudly and then promptly tried to blast Buffy’s head off with a cero.

Their fight was long and fun and Buffy laughed as much (and possibly as manically) as he did during it. But at the end of the day, she was a Slayer who was in her element (combat, the night), on her chosen turf (the desert), and had killed too many gods to bother counting in the course of her very long, very bloody career. The gap in their skills was such that she eventually defeated him.

“Go ahead,” he spat, lying at her feet in the bloodied sand. “Consume me. But know this: I’m going to eat you too! I’ll eat you from the inside out!”

Buffy grimaced. “I’d rather not.”

“What, I’m not worthy of being eaten by you?” he sneered, trying and failing to raise himself up onto his elbow. “I’ll show you! I’ll crush anyone who looks down on me!”

“I thought you didn’t want to be eaten?” Buffy asked dryly.

“That was before I knew that you were looking down on me!”

“Kinda hard not to when you’re lying down there,” Buffy drawled, and was rewarded with an enraged yowl. Grimmjow’s attempts to sit up became even more frantic (and painful) to watch.

Sighing, Buffy flopped down next to him.

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate you,” she said as carefully as she knew how. “You’re just not something that I’d like to eat.”

“Yeah, right.”

“No, really,” Buffy insisted, “souls are not my thing. But if you grab a few things for me in Aizen’s monument to himself, I’ll call us even.”

“What sort of things?” Grimmjow asked warily.

“Clothes, soaps, snacks,” Buffy listed, “nothing important to the cause or whatever you’re getting up to in there.”

“Fine,” Grimmjow huffed as he relaxed into the sand, “crazy woman.”

Buffy slapped his broken arm for that. Then she carried him home and dumped him on Aizen’s doorstep.

She was rewarded for her good deed by a cloth bag filled with creature comforts and a visit from the Fifth Espada, Nnoitra.

Buffy had once known him as Xander Harris.

Rather than allowing Nnoitra to find her, she instead waited for him to get frustrated, give up, and go home. Then, she followed him home and observed him in his element.

It should not have surprised her that Nnoitra was one of the ones who had chosen to serve, but it did. Xander had always wanted to be the one in charge, the one with power over others.

But, watching Nnoitra strut and brag and bully those around him, Buffy could see the appeal. She wondered what it had cost Nnoitra to achieve Xander’s dream and if finally having power was everything that he had ever thought that it would be. (She thought that he might say, ‘yes, it’s everything I ever wanted and more.’) Buffy thought that Xander (or what was left of him, at any rate) was, if not exactly happy to serve, satisfied with his position. The power that it gave him (personally and over others) certainly made him happy.

Buffy, who had lived under the weight of Xander’s happiness, of his selfish peace of mind, itched to tear his spine out and shatter his mask, slowly, splinter by agonizing splinter.

The shinigami and everything they brought with them irritated her.

But the scent curling through Hueco Mundo, half remembered and so very dear, became stronger with every month that Buffy allowed the shinigami to stay.

_They can stay a bit longer,_ Buffy decided, watching as Nnoitra and his minions ambushed a teal-haired Espada. _But once I figure out what that scent it, they’re out._

Enforced immortality in a mortal world had taught Buffy many things, including a measure of hard won patience. It was a lesson that came in handy when Buffy found herself in a staring match with the Fourth Espada, Ulquiorra Cifer.

Emo Espada was so going down!

 

 

 

Faith chose to captain the Third Division, mostly because the Ninth’s lieutenant set her teeth on edge with his justice bullshit and leading the Fifth required a talent for Kido that Faith simply did not possess. Her meager skill at Kido came from study, practice, and a lot of destroyed targets.

The Third’s lieutenant, Kira Izuru, seemed like a bit of a drag but he also seemed to have no opinion one way or the other about justice, the Third required no special skills to lead it, and Faith was sick of heading the Detention Unit. Plus, Kira was just the sort of super competent lieutenant that Captain Hirako had once recommended as the ideal subordinate for a lazy captain.

Faith approached Soifon about a recommendation for the Captain’s Exam.

“I was hoping that you’d want to move up,” Soifon replied. “We need strong new leadership now more than ever. The traitors’ divisions can’t be allowed to flounder.”

The captain’s exam wasn’t too bad.

Two weeks after Aizen’s defection, Faith was the new leader of the Third Division. Her first order of business was to ask Kira Izuru to stay on as her lieutenant.

Looking at her chin with a tired sort of terror, Kira asked wearily, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Faith replied. Then, because that did not seem to be enough to persuade him, she added, “You know the division, you don’t get on my nerves, and from what I hear you’re good at your job.”

Bowing his head, Kira murmured, “I’d be honored to serve as your lieutenant, Captain.”

Faith wanted to say something to make him sound less like he was agreeing to serve refreshments at his own funeral, but everything that she had said so far had been wrong. So instead, she patted his shoulder, startling Kira badly. When Kira startled and finally looked her in the face, Faith grinned.

“Don’t worry, it won’t be that bad,” she promised. “I’ll even try to do my share of the paperwork sometimes.”

Kira’s smile was fragile but real.

 

 

 

No one ever came from Soul Society for the renegade shinigami or their court of fools.

Buffy went to complain to the mad shinigami in the western forest about his brethren’s lack of go-kill-it-ness. Sure, she was interested in the power radiating from the citadel, but Buffy firmly believed in maintaining professional standards. The shinigami corps was failing to live up to her expectations.

Since the mad shinigami in the western forest was old-fashioned even by her standards, Buffy brought stolen tins of tea, cookies, and fruit from the citadel as a visiting gift. They visited and snacked and he listened patiently while Buffy complained about the lack of work ethic in younger heroes.

“That’s not how Soul Society works,” he explained when she was done. “That sort of individualism would get you thrown into the Maggots’ Nest.”

“The what?”

By the time that he finished explaining how Soul Society worked, Buffy was seriously considering razing the place. She was surprised that Faith liked Soul Society as much as she obviously did. Maybe Faith didn’t know about what happened to overly irritating people in Soul Society.

“If they ever put you in the Maggots’ Nest,” Buffy told her mad shinigami, “I’ll come and rescue you.”

“Thank you,” he replied, smiling. It was nice to have a friend again.

 

 

 

Buffy found the little girl in the desert of endless night. She was alone and wailing for her brothers and someone called ‘Itsygo’. In the child, Buffy recognized the teal-haired Espada that Nnoitra had once ambushed.

“If you keep that up,” Buffy told the child, “something will hear you and come gobble you up.”

The child yelped, loudly, and scrambled backward and away from Buffy in a flurry of sand and tattered green robes.

“You’re going to eat me?” screeched the child. She began crying in earnest.

“No, of course I’m not going to eat you. You’re not even a mouthful,” Buffy scoffed. Even though few things were as they seemed in Hueco Mundo, old habits compelled Buffy to ask, “Do you need help finding your brothers?”

“Y-Yes please,” sniffled the little girl, the cracked skull on the crown of her head gleaming in the moonlight. She dragged a grubby sleeve across her face. When she offered Buffy a filthy little hand, Buffy took it.

As they walked, the little girl told Buffy all about her adventures with ‘Itsygo’, whom she wanted to stay with always. Buffy understood that. She had always envisioned spending the afterlife with Dawn and their mother. Just because her afterlife had not worked out the way that she had wanted it to was no reason for this little girl to miss out too.

“I’m Buffy.”

“I’m Nel!”

“Don’t worry, Nel,” said Buffy. “I’ll help you find your shinigami.”

 

 

 

It was only when Aizen left Hueco Mundo in a bright burst of familiar energy that Buffy realized why the power that had been curling through Hueco Mundo was so familiar.

_Dawn!_

Wheeling on the Espada standing across from her, Buffy demanded, “Where did he go?”

Ulquiorra Cifer arched an eyebrow at her. Then he left the room, leaving Buffy with a small army of little Arrancars and pseudo-Espada.

“I’m going to _make_ him tell me!” Buffy hissed. Then to the little girl at her side, she snapped, “Go hide behind a column until I tell you that it’s safe.”

Nel did as she was told.

And Buffy did what she did best.

 

 

 

Faith was leading the shinigami’s ground resistance, laughing as she mowed her way through Aizen’s lesser ranks.

Fighting an Espada would have been fun but with the way the others were pairing off, Ukitake and Kyoraku against one, Rangiku and Toshiro against another, Soifon and Marechiyo against the third with the Captain Commander cheering them on, that dance seemed a bit crowded for Faith’s tastes. And someone needed to keep an eye out for the lower ranks. Not everyone had a bankai or secret Slayer powers to fall back on.

With a handful of lieutenants following her lead, Faith moved street by street through the mock town, clearing it of every Arrancar that she ran across, especially the Espada’s pet Arrancars.

The exiles showed up at some point, making Faith doubly glad that she had chosen the ground war instead of the more glamorous fights against the Espada. At least down in the streets, no one expected her to share a fight. If anything, they expected her to horn in on their fun to make sure that they survived it.

And then Aizen, Tousen, Ichimaru, and some weird kid and his pet showed up fashionably late to skew the numbers. When the kid put his hand through Ukitake, Faith barely caught her fellow captain before he hurtled head first into a building.

“Take care of this,” Faith ordered as she bundled Ukitake into Kira’s arms. That idiot from the Ninth had already rushed off to confront his former captain, and things were starting to look grim up top.

“Yes, captain.”

Faith flash-stepped her way up to join the others and fell in line with Captain Hirako. They were just starting to get down to business when a blast of familiar energy washed over the city.

“That’s enough!”

The shout rang across the battle for (Fake) Karakura Town, the sounds of combat dying in its wake. It wasn’t the words or the voice that stopped them as much as the flood of utterly inhuman reiatsu. Darkness, deep, endless, and without relief, tore through the air, making everyone stagger, Hollow and Shinigami alike; everyone except Faith, whose own inner darkness rose to meet and twine with Buffy’s.

Ignoring the appalled looks from the other captains, Faith grinned.

Glancing up, Faith easily picked out B in the sky above. She was standing at the mouth of a Garganta, a teal-haired Hollow kid perched on one of her shoulders doing nothing to detract from the impression that Buffy had just stepped straight out of the bad old days. Maybe it was the scowl, the bloodlust, or the blood drying on her rags.

B still knew how to make an entrance.

“Where’s the Shinigami known as Aizen?” Buffy demanded, and Faith idly wondered how many of Aizen’s minions Buffy had killed to find out about the Fake Karakura Town invasion. Judging by the amount of dried blood flaking off of her, it was probably quite a lot. “And who stole this town?”

“Aizen’s that one,” Faith called, helpfully pointing at the bastard, because if anyone deserved to receive the brunt of Buffy’s temper, it was him.

“Him?” Buffy asked, looking down her nose at the would-be King. As she was at least a head shorter than him, it was quite a trick. “The brunet one with the bad makeup and worse hair extensions?”

Aizen looked stunned and then offended.

“There’s no need to be mean,” scolded Gin, his smile wide and mocking. “anyway, that’s his natural hair.”

“I was being kind,” Buffy said flatly. “That makeup would look much better on a redhead with a peaches and cream complexion.”

“I _told_ you that someone’s been stealing my makeup and your hair gel!” exclaimed Rangiku, rounding on her captain. “But you wouldn’t believe me!”

“S-Sorry!” stuttered Toshiro. “But what sane person would ever have believed it?”

“And I wouldn’t admit to the hair thing,” Buffy advised Aizen, ignoring the byplay from the Tenth’s intrepid leaders. “Stick with the botched extensions cover story.”

“Do you have a purpose for being here?” demanded Tousen, apparently at the end of his legendary patience. “Or did you just come here to die?”

“Hey, I was distracted by all of the fashion fail!” complained Buffy, who was apparently in top Valley Girl form. She must have had fun in Hueco Mundo. “Have you looked at your fearless leader lately? Friends do _not_ let friends step out of the house looking like that!”

“No,” Tousen said flatly. He even turned to _glare_ at Buffy.

“He’s blind,” Captain Hirako added helpfully.

Buffy winced. “Oh geez, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive. I didn’t know.”

“You’re hardly in a position to criticize our uniforms,” drawled Gin, his eyes politely lingering on the frayed collar of what might once have been a pink shirt instead of one of the many gaps in Buffy’s current attire.

“I looked better before I visited Las Noches,” Buffy replied dismissively. “You, uh, might want to remodel when you get back. And consider decorating with something other than columns. Painting them red doesn’t make them any less boring or breakable.”

Nearby, Soifon, Marechiyo, and the former lieutenant of the Kido Corps were doing a quick double step backwards to avoid Barraggan’s creeping old age. Near them, the third Espada, Hitsuguya, Rangiku, and two Visoreds were also scrambling out of harm’s way.

“Hey! Did you not hear the part where I said ‘that’s enough’?” Buffy demanded, rounding on Barriggan. “No one gets to kill anyone until after Aizen returns my sister and I’ve gotten this town put back where it belongs. Then all of you can trot off to Soul Society or Hueco Mundo to sort this out.”

“Impudent insect!” roared Barraggan, his rot racing towards Buffy. “You insult one whose power is beyond your comprehension!”

“Faith! Hold this!”

And without even waiting for Faith to sheathe her zanpakuto, Buffy tossed the Hollow kid in Faith’s general direction.

“Aaaaaiiiii!” screamed the girl as she hurtled head first towards Faith.

Hitsuguya darted into the kid’s path.

Faith watched as B’s little Hollow slammed into Hitsuguya with bone-cracking force, sending them both tumbling through the air. Screaming their lungs out, the pair plummeted toward the mock city below them, the girl somehow managing to twine her arms and legs around Hitsuguya’s torso and cling to him like a monkey.

As they passed her, Faith reached out to snag one of Hitsuguya’s arms. A good, hard yank stopped the kids’ end over end fall toward the city below.

“Sh-She’s such a scary big sister!” whimpered the little Hollow, her face mashed against Hitsuguya’s shoulder blade.

“You don’t gotta tell me,” Faith muttered wryly as she looked back towards Soifon’s battleground in time to see B race at Barraggan and casually slap aside his aging rot.

As Faith watched, Barraggan roared and flung both of his skeletal hands at B, fully enveloping her in his black power. It curled through her blonde hair, skimmed along the curve of her cheek, and twined around her limbs. It pulled at B and came away with nothing.

“What is this?” demanded the skeleton king. He sounded enraged. “My power has dominion over all!”

“You scorned me in life,” B said coldly, one hand darting into the neck of Barraggan’s cowl to wrap around his spine. “Why should I let you have any power over me in death?”

His frail skeletal hands clawing fruitlessly at her forearm, Barraggan roared, “What are you?”

“Just a girl,” B replied, trotting out that tired old line before, with a press of her thumb, she snapped Barraggan’s neck. The crack of shattered bone ricocheted through Karakura Town’s skyscrapers as Barraggan’s head tumbled off of his shoulders.

B, being B, flipped backwards to catch the skull as it tumbled past Barraggan’s feet. She casually crushed it between her two hands, a flex of her biceps that sprinkled the city below with white bone shards.

“Now,” Buffy said, turning on the assembled armies as the rest of Barraggan’s remains fell, unheeded, behind her. “I want my sister. I want this city put back. And I want a donut! I’m hungry!”

Silence.

Faith grinned, because B tended to have that effect on people.

“B, I’m fine,” Faith said. “I’m right here.”

“Not you!” Buffy snapped. “Dawnie!”

As if the name was a summons, energy pulsed through the battlefield again. This time it was light green and far, far too much. Faith and everyone around her shuddered and stumbled under the Key’s power...

…which came from Aizen’s chest.

“Dawn?” asked Faith, shocked, her skin aching as if the green energy was pressing down on her with crushing force.

B, who had had several lifetimes to get used to Dawn Summer’s presence, seemed unaffected by the Key’s power. Scowling furiously, she rounded on Aizen.

“Dawn Marie Summers! You come out of that creepy man’s chest this instant!”

There was another, awful pulse of energy and then, in a burst of blood and viscera, the Hogyoku wrenched itself out of Aisen’s torso. It shot across the sky, a searing green comet that came to a stop in front of Buffy.

“With me or apart, the Hogyoku belongs to me!” Aizen intoned as he flung a hand towards the glowing ball of light. “Hogyoku! Return to me at once!”

The Hogyoku ignored him. Instead of returning to Aizen’s hand, there was a second, gentler surge of energy, and the body of a teenage girl shimmered into existence around the stone. It was Dawn Summers, fourteen and delighted.

“Buffy!” She squealed, hitting decibels that made Faith wince. Dawn flung herself at Buffy. “You’re here! I knew I could rescue you!”

Buffy, being Buffy, caught Dawn and hugged her tightly. “Rescue me? From what?”

“From Willow’s stupid spell!” Dawn exclaimed, pulling back slightly. Her hand still gripped Buffy’s forearms tightly. “I did this whole thing to help you escape your old body!”

Faith was starting to get a terrible, terrible feeling. Dawn had been a cute kid and a scary woman, but the limitations placed on her by being caged in Buffy’s flesh and Buffy’s blood had kept her powers strictly on the human level. What morals Dawn had, she had fashioned off of close observation of Buffy and with mixed results.

An all powerful, amoral Key with only Buffy’s mortality to guide her – Buffy, who had reputedly valued Dawn more than her duty or even the entire world and everyone in it at one point – did not bear thinking on.

“Dawnie…” murmured Buffy, sounding surprised.

“When I let my human body die, I thought I could come back with the full power of the Key and release you from your corpse. Except I couldn’t, not without putting the world in danger again, and I knew you wouldn’t want me to do that. I couldn’t even exist in Soul Society or Hueco Mundo as my full self without hurting people. Humans are so fragile! So I thought, ‘If I can’t fix Buffy, who better to fix a mad scientist’s mistake then another mad scientist?’”

Here, Faith snorted because B had said that exact same thing to her once.

_Dawn definitely got more than her looks off of B,_ thought Faith, and shuddered slightly.

“Luckily, I had two mad scientists to choose from in Soul Society, not counting Willow’s soul. So I let this one, Aizen, think that he invented a shard of me, and the other one, Urahara, think that he discovered a piece of me. And then I tried to figure out which one was smarter.”

“Urahara’s smarter,” put in Hirako with a malicious smile for his former lieutenant, “obviously.”

“Well, yeah,” agreed Dawn. “And I heard that he owed Buffy a favor for letting that soul out of the Maggot’s Nest. That’s why I helped this one, Aizen, with his plans to get rid of his captain and politely suggested that he should get Urahara banished to the human world as well.”

“You bastard!” shrieked Hiyori, throwing herself at Dawn. “Look what you did to us!”

That, Faith felt, was a very fair criticism. She was still relieved when Captain Hirako caught Hiyori around the middle and clamped a hand over her mouth as she passed by him. B was certifiably unreasonable when it came to Dawn. And Dawn was fully the Key now. There was no telling what might happen if Hiyori tried to hurt Dawn or, worse, actually managed to damage Dawn’s human form.

It was a testament to the Shinigami and Hollows’ mutual (and, in Faith’s opinion, weird) sense of honor that no one else had even considered attacking during Dawn’s explanation. They were all so much more polite than anyone that Faith had known during her human life.

“I helped you too! I helped Urahara stabilize your souls and made your whole group’s escape to the human world successful.” Dawn scowled. “Except Urahara kept running away from Buffy, which made me – well, the shard of me that I let him keep – mad. And he noticed. That’s when Urahara started to suspect that maybe the shard that I sent him wasn’t just a chunk of rock or a new substance that he’d discovered. Eventually, he figured out a way to stick that shard of me in someone else’s soul.”

“Dawnie, did you –”

“I was careful, Buffy! I sat there quietly and tried my very hardest to help her in the littlest, gentlest ways that I knew how. I didn’t hurt her at all!”

B visibly relaxed.

“Aizen was the one who hurt her,” Dawn carelessly added. “He put his hand into her soul and ripped my shard right out of her.” At Buffy’s stricken expression, Dawn hastily added, “But I felt her soul in Hueco Mundo! She’s okay, and she’s still a shinigami!”

“Good!”

“But there are a lot of realms, Buffy, and I didn’t know which one you’d gone to. And I can’t go in most of them anymore. Not if I don’t want to damage them. So I thought, ‘Well, what better way to find Buffy than to make her come to me?’ That’s why I helped Aizen with his rebellion against the King. And here you are!”

“Dawnie, we’re going to have another talk about how the strong should treat the weak,” Buffy said, ignoring Dawn’s grimace. One of her hands moving to touch Dawn’s long, fine hair, Buffy added, “But thank you for rescuing me. I’m glad to be free.”

Dawn beamed.

Faith had the sinking feeling that no matter what B said about how to treat people or about how invading and destroying large swathes of Earth was never the answer, Dawn would think more about this moment.

Dawn Summers was never going to regret what she had done to Aizen, Urahara, or any of the others, because Buffy was happy and grateful. Buffy had _acknowledged_ her, and that would mean more to Dawn than the ethics of using three realms and everyone in them as her tools to rescue her sister.

Becoming a Shinigami had given Faith a longer view on things. She suspected that a few thousand years from now, Buffy might very well regret this moment.

But just then, Buffy looked radiantly happy. It was the first time that Faith could remember B looking that way since her forcible resurrection at Willow’s inept hands.

“We should go get the rest of me,” Dawn decided. She let go of Buffy’s arms in favor of claiming one of her hands. “I’m bunking in my friend Kirio’s palace.”

“Dawnie, the _city!_ And I promised to help Nel find Itsygo.”

“Nel?”

“The little Hollow girl? She’s with Faith.”

“We’ll put Karakura Town back when we’re done!” Faith hurried to put in before B or Dawn could work themselves up to breaking the columns. “And I’ll look after the Hollow kid! You go ahead and visit Captain Hikifune. Give her my love!”

It didn’t look like anyone was going to pry Nel off of Hitsuguya any time soon anyway.

“Are you sure?” asked Buffy, looking torn. “You won’t purify her or anything, will you?”

“Positive, B. She’ll be safe as houses with me. Go have fun with your sister. Maybe visit a spa and do a little shopping.” Deliberately making her gaze critical, Faith looked Buffy up and then down. “You kind of need it.”

“Faith!”

And in a small burst of green energy the sisters Summers were gone. Thankfully.

When Faith looked back around for the traitors, Tousen and the two remaining Espada were gone, and Ichimaru was standing over Aizen’s dissolving corpse.

“Funny thing about my bankai,” Ichimaru remarked conversationally. “It wasn’t what I said it was at all.”

Faith felt a headache coming on.

  



End file.
